Circum Spective

It Won't Be Long Now

Try not to get too distracted by all these silly (relatively speaking) political issues. If you are not truly ready to meet your Maker, I recommend you take care of that very soon.

On May 28th, I wrote about the one real issue facing all of us:

"... In Iran, on the other hand, Mahmood I'm-a-dinner-jacket seems to have evil principles giving structure to his grandiose thought processes. He seems to have darkness as his guide and death to Israeli and American societies as the primary objectives in his life. ...He just keeps moving forward toward his stated goals, while the rest of us do nothing to stop him from reaching those goals. And he will probably reach them in the very near future (within a year or two).

So let's do the difficult thing now, because what is difficult now may be impossible later ... Let's act NOW to reduce [Iran's] ability to "bring America to its knees". Later might be a little too late. All we have to do is keep our mouths shut except to express full support for the Isrealis, and then either help them or stay out of their way when the time comes. ... [W]e will all be quietly relieved and grateful when the Isreali Air Force effectively relieves Iran of its nuclear capabilities. All of us. Including the most vehement and far left critics. They just won't be honest enough to admit it."

Today, there was this story:

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel hardened its insistence Monday that it would do anything it felt necessary to stop Iran from getting a nuclear bomb, just the ultimatum the United States hoped not to hear as it tried to nudge Iran to the bargaining table.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak used a brief news conference with Gates to insist three times that Israel would not rule out any response - an implied warning that it would consider a pre-emptive strike to thwart Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

"We clearly believe that no option should be removed from the table," Barak said. "This is our policy. We mean it. We recommend to others to take the same position, but we cannot dictate it to anyone."

Israel considers itself the prime target of any eventual Iranian bomb. Iran says it is merely trying to develop nuclear reactors for domestic power generation. Israeli leaders fear the U.S. prizes its outreach to Iran over its historic ties to Israel and appears resigned to the idea that Iran will soon be able to build a nuclear weapon.

Obama says he has accepted no such thing. Still, the United States argues that an Israeli attack against Iran would upset the fragile security balance in the Middle East, perhaps triggering a new nuclear arms race and leaving everyone, including Israel and Iran, worse off.

All this comes at a time when Washington's policy of dialogue with Iran itself has hit an impasse because of that country's election turmoil.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "reiterated the seriousness (with) which Israel views Iran's nuclear ambitions and the need to utilize all available means to prevent Iran from achieving a nuclear weapons capability," Netanyahu's office said following his meeting with Gates.

Both Barak and Gates said time is short. Other officials have said Iran is perhaps one to three years away from being able to build a nuclear weapon.

It won't be long now.